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Comfort is the executioner of triumph. Get off the couch!!

It has been a while since we have written an article that is inspirational in nature. Sometimes, I write more about the practical side of finances and the impact that small changes can have on people’s future. However, from time to time, we at Saving For Hope, like to target difficult issues like, wealth inequality, the strong grip of debt in our contemporary culture, to the cycle of poverty, something we are clear we want to break, especially for young families and kids.

I was talking a good friend of mine this past week about finances. Since he is a trusted friend and someone that I respect a lot, I was listening to one of his lectures on attitude and its relationship to business and finances. One of the items he touched on was the idea of comfort.

Comfort can be tricky to define, and in the entrepreneurial world, what is comfortable for one person might be crazy for another. However, his lecture did make me think about the idea of comfort, and how comfort creeps into our lives and stops us from achieving our potential. But before you think I am crazy, let me explain in more detail.

Comfort is the attitude to be idle because one is at ease doing something. A good example is a person that is comfortable with a job and does not want to do anything different or sacrifice to make a change for the better. Another example can be people going home after work and sitting on a couch for hours with no purpose other than to kill time. Now these two examples are different in nature, but they both show a level of comfort that can be dangerous for our families.

Whoever, we hear people like this complain all the time about money, or debt, or whatever the situation might be. But it does not have to be that way. To triumph in life, for whatever goal you have, you need to stop being comfortable and work hard to achieve your goals. If you are in debt, get out of it by taking a part time job for a while. If you want to retire with dignity, start putting more money aside for your retirement. If you want to be a business owner, start planning for your business and execute that plan. If you want a raise, do something about it like getting back to school to justify it to your employer. If you want more time with your kids, stop watching TV and spend time with them, and the list goes on and on. The other extreme can be being super busy doing a bunch but never accomplishing anything. So, just because you spend a ton of time doing this and that, does not mean you are being productive.

Perhaps here is where you are in life, doing a lot but getting nowhere, or perhaps you have goals that for whatever reason ‘the couch’ has gotten in the way and you never achieved. Let this article be the catalyst to help get off the couch!! It is time to start making these resolutions a priority and start grappling towards achieving your goals.

It is important to mention, that there is nothing wrong with watching TV, or sitting on a couch after work for a while. I know my wife looks forward to that time of the day when she can disconnect her brain from the business of the day and sit in front of the TV for an hour drinking tea to unwind. Nothing wrong with that!! but don’t confuse rest with laziness and contentment with tiredness. What we are suggesting to you, is not to stop watching TV (or whatever) but it is to have purpose and goals to make your time on this earth more fruitful. Don’t settle for mediocrity, when you have the potential to do better! Don’t give up, even if you don’t see immediate results. Don’t let other people drag you down and stay true to who you are! Of course, all these principles do not only apply to finances, but to life in general. We at Saving For Hope are all about free financial education to empower people (especially kids and young adults) to have quality of life.

Go out there and make it happen! Start your financial plan, and/or working towards your goals today. Enjoy!